Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain (R-AZ), has campaign aggressively in New Hampshire. After a background report, Margaret Warner and Washington Post analyst Dan Balz discuss how his message is playing to voters.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: It doesn't take a lot of talent to get shot down. I was able to intercept a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane, which many of you know is no mean feat.

MARGARET WARNER: At this senior center in Plymouth McCain asked his audience for sympathy.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Barry Goldwater from Arizona ran for President of the United States - I'm sure you remember that; Maurice Udall from Arizona ran for President of the United States; Bruce Babbitt from Arizona ran for President of the United States. Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don't tell their children that some day they can grow up and be President of the United States.

SPOKESMAN: Senator John McCain.

MARGARET WARNER: But he quickly went on, as he did at a VFW Hall in Littleton, to explain why he's running.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: My friends, I'm running for President of the United States to restore our foreign policy and our military and the capabilities that we need to display in this post-Cold War era. We went from a very dangerous but very predictable world during the Cold War. We now in a far less predictable but very dangerous world we exist today. The next President of the United States, whether the American people care or not, and I pray that they will begin to care, will have to spend a great deal of time and energy on these issues. And you can't, and you have to start by restoring our military. We've got to reform this government. We've got to reform education in America. We've got to reform the military. We've got to reform the tax code, which is now 44,000 pages long. We have to reform our government to get in tune with this information technology, which is proceeding with breathtaking speed, which is responsible for this incredible economy that we're experiencing throughout the nation and here in New Hampshire. But we can't do it, we can't do it unless we reform the system of financing campaigns, which has caused the public interest to be submerged by the special interests. My friends, it is a sad and terrible time in America when we pass laws, such as the last tax bill, the tax cut, which has tax benefits for special interests that take effect immediately, and the tax cuts that were supposed to help average Americans don't go into effect until well into the next century.

MARGARET WARNER: McCain devoted most of his time, however, to taking questions. This man in Littleton challenged McCain to explain why he opposed trade protections for domestic industries, like New Hampshire's textile mills.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I would be more than happy to provide job training, reeducation and help to anyone who is displaced.

MARGARET WARNER: The questioner wasn't convinced and challenged McCain again.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Sir, I did not know that your ambitions were for your children to work in a textile mill, to be honest with you. I would rather have them work in a high-tech industry, I would rather have them work in the computer industry, I would rather give them the kind of education and training that's necessary in order for them to really have prosperous and full lives. We have an honest disagreement, sir.

MAN: We do.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Yes, sir. But I will be glad... everybody's entitled to their opinion, but not everybody's entitled to their facts. And I would be glad to show you the economic statistics of the state of New Hampshire, which are drastically improved. Thank you for your question.

MAN IN AUDIENCE: Why is it that the republican leadership in Washington always seems to be one or two steps behind the Clinton administration in getting a message out on individual issues?

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I equate this, our relationship, Republican relationship with President Clinton, that of the Wiley Coyote and the Road Runner. Republicans are always just about to get President Clinton and we've almost got our arms around him and then the dynamite goes off where we run over the cliff or the train runs over us or... I would argue that we go back to Ronald Reagan, we go back to 1994, where we can set out a specific positive agenda for the American people, and it doesn't matter what President Clinton or any of the Democrats do, and we'll fight the battle of ideas, not the battle of personalities.

MARGARET WARNER: But on another subject, abortion, McCain has been less direct.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I am pro-life, and I am not ashamed of that position. But I believe very strongly that we have to go back to the time when we were an inclusive party and we worked together and not allow this to divide us up. And I don't want to exclude anyone from the Republican Party on a single-issue position.

MARGARET WARNER: Now for more, we turn now to Dan Balz of the Washington Post. The NewsHour's working with the Post in covering the 2000 presidential race. Dan's been traveling with McCain this week and he's in Manchester, New Hampshire this evening. So, Dan, were those excerpts typical of the way john McCain's interacting with the voters on this bus tour?

DAN BALZ: Very typical, Margaret. This is a bus tour that very much reflects McCain's personality, and I think what you showed people there is a good indication of the kind of flavor that he is conveying as he goes down through New Hampshire this week. He is contentious, he is blunt, he is funny, he's self-deprecating, he's willing to engage with his audiences, he's not afraid to disagree, and he is hoping that in the long run, that that will create for him the kind of persona that people up here will warm to.

MARGARET WARNER: Strategists say that they're trying to draw contrasts with other candidates in the race by not playing it safe?

DAN BALZ: Well, this is in part what they are working with, but they couldn't do anything else other than that with John McCain. John McCain has never been the kind of politician who plays it safe. I think one of the things they're trying to do is show a contrast perhaps with Governor Bush, but with any other candidate, as well, that this is a candidate who believes passionately in reforming the political system and that, until we do that, as he says, you can't get the other issues that people care about completed in Washington. And so he is driving that message home wherever he can go. The other thing I think that he's trying to do is to present himself as a person of character and of substance, perhaps, again in contrast to Governor Bush, who's been criticized for not being substantive enough and to say to people that I have been through the kind of experiences in my life, both in the battles that I've fought in Congress and also the experience I had in Vietnam, where he was a prisoner of war, that gives me the character to be a strong leader as President. That's what I think he's banking on.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, how are the audiences responding to this straight talk?

DAN BALZ: Well, they respond reasonably well. I don't think that he's necessarily made the sale with all of them, and there are a lot of people who still are, you know, at this early stage in the campaign, even here in New Hampshire, are still being introduced to the candidates. They don't know Senator McCain that well at this point. I think they like the fact that he's straightforward, I think they like the fact that he's down to earth. I don't know whether, over time, that he will wear well in the way he confronts people sometimes angrily, as he did the person about protectionism and the textile mills. There were a number of instances this week where he got into a tangle with a caller or a person who disagreed with him on things. Now, he stands his ground, and he believes that that's the best way to deal with people.

MARGARET WARNER: Is part of this also a bid for the independent voters in New Hampshire who, unlike most states, can go and vote in either primary they want?

DAN BALZ: It is very much a bid for that. As we said, New Hampshire figures crucially in Senator McCain's plans. He skipped the Iowa straw poll last month. He is likely to skip the Iowa caucuses. He told us today on the bus that he will make that decision in the next couple of weeks, but nobody expects him to be a participant in the Iowa caucuses. He's running essentially a two-state strategy at this point New Hampshire and then South Carolina. Now, here in New Hampshire, I think he's banking on three things: One is that this is a state that likes to give front-runners trouble. 1984, Walter Mondale, who was the Democratic front-runner at the time, lost the New Hampshire primary. In 1992, President Bush got a strong challenge from Pat Buchanan up here, and in 1996, Bob Dole, who eventually became the Republican nominee, lost this primary to Patrick Buchanan. Voters up here like to cause trouble with front-runners. I think, second, Senator McCain recognizes that here in New Hampshire, you have a Republican electorate that is somewhat more moderate than he would face in the Iowa caucuses, and you have a growing cadre of independent voters up here who I think the McCain forces believe will be attracted to his very strong reform message. The third thing that he's trying to do here and in other places is play the veteran's card. As you said, he spent a number of times doing town meetings in VFW halls this week. Next week he will begin a book tour for a book that he has written about himself and his father and grandfather. It is a book that details in great detail his experiences as a prisoner of war, and I think he is hoping that that will present a persona to people that here in New Hampshire and elsewhere will be attractive.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, I noticed at least in some of the accounts, that he is getting quite a few questions about abortion, though that's not necessarily... hasn't been historically a hot issue in New Hampshire. Is that issue really dogging him this week?

DAN BALZ: It is dogging him right now because he kind of fell into a problem ten days ago. He did an interview when he was traveling in California a couple of weeks ago with the San Francisco Chronicle, and in that interview, he indicated or said fairly bluntly that he didn't think in either the short term or the long term that Roe v. Wade should or would be overturned. Now, this created a real backlash among pro-life forces, and it has forced Senator McCain to kind of backtrack himself as to where he... not where he stands on the issue, but how he's presenting the issue. He has said this week a couple of different things, not necessarily inconsistent, but he's tried to say a couple of things. One is he says, "I have a 17-year pro-life voting record." He said, "I probably have a longer voting record on abortion than anybody else in the race other than Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah." The second thing he says is that the Republican Party ought to be inclusive, and that it ought to be, as a party of Lincoln, a party that does not exclude people on the basis of one issue or another issue. So he's trying to say that the party needs to reach out to people who disagree, but he's also trying to say that... to voters who are skeptical about what he's had to say in the last ten days, that he is personally very much a pro-life Senator.

MARGARET WARNER: You said earlier that he said something to you on the bus, or reporters on the bus. Does he actually sit with the reporters on the bus; does he interact with you? Is he just as candid?

DAN BALZ: Very, very much so. This is in some ways with a throwback to with a much earlier kind of campaign. We're used now to, even those of us who travel with a candidate, to not seeing the candidate that much on the candidate's plane. If we're on the bus, they're generally on another bus. They tend to be rather isolated. Senator McCain's quite the opposite. He sits in the back of the bus where the reporters are. There's kind of a rotating cadre of reporters who are along this week. He comes back, he spends the entire time on every leg sitting back in the back of the bus with reporters. Everything is on the record. He takes any and all questions. There is, as you can imagine, a lot of banter that goes back and forth, and he is very good at that. He is a real wise cracker from his Navy days. But at the same time, he's quite willing to ask -- answer any question, large or small. And it's quite unusual for a candidate.

MARGARET WARNER: It also creates the opportunity for gaffes, doesn't it?

DAN BALZ: It does create the opportunity for gaffes, and Senator McCain is somebody who has on occasion kind of put his foot in his mouth, as he's acknowledged on this trip. But I think he believes that in the long run, people appreciate somebody who is not overly packaged, who is candid, who is honest to a fault, if you want to put it that way, and that he is going to be that kind of candidate.

MARGARET WARNER: Brief last question: He is second in the polls in New Hampshire. How significant do you think that is?

DAN BALZ: Well, I think it's important. The latest polls up here do show him second. One poll shows him a clear second at this point, though Governor Bush still has a healthy lead. But it is still early at this point. I think he believes he's making good progress here.

MARGARET WARNER: All right, thanks very much, Dan.

DAN BALZ: Thank you, Margaret.